Highlights
-- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2009 2:00:00 AM
Frame grabber sports four FireWire ports
The PCIe-FIW64 PCI Express x4 frame grabber from Adlink Technology provides four IEEE 1394b (FireWire) ports for connecting multiple 1394b cameras. The $385 board offers isolated I/O and triggering and delivers data transfer rates of up to 800 Mbps.
Cameras connected to the PCIe-FIW64 draw power directly through the board, reducing wiring. Front-panel LEDs display the status of each channel. The board provides four isolated digital inputs and four isolated digital outputs to connect to external devices such as position sensors. It also furnishes four isolated trigger inputs and four isolated trigger outputs, as well as four isolated, TTL-level programmable trigger output pulses to manage trigger events, such as activating a strobe light. www.adlinktech.com.
Luxo debuts dimmable LED ring light
Maximizing light output and distribution, while preventing glare and reflections, Luxo’s dimmable high-output LED ring light can be used for inspection, assembly, and rework applications. Its pure-white LED light makes it useful for inspecting circuit boards, surface cracks and defects, welds, solder joints, flux residues, and hairline stress cracks.
The Model 18743 ring light, which works with Luxo’s binocular and trinocular microscope systems, employs 80 high-output LEDs that draw only 18 W of energy and produce up to 5800 fc of illuminance at a working distance of 4.5 in. The LEDs are distributed among two concentric rings of lights and are controlled using eight quadrant switches. A color temperature of 6000 K, combined with dimming to 15% output, enables the ring light to be used with digital equipment such as Luxo’s System 373 trinocular microscopes. www.luxous.com.
Smart cameras gain open-source platform
The 2008 Vision Award, presented November 4 during Vision 2008 in Stuttgart, went to Supercomputing Systems, makers of the LeanXcam smart camera based on open-source hardware and software. Reto Baettig, head of the company’s vision department, said that the award was made for innovation in the business model on which the camera is based.
“Cameras like this one are not new in machine vision,” said Baettig. “But up to now, they have always been higher priced and sold with a complex, expensive software package.” Supercomputing Systems is offering an open-source system to reduce costs and enable vision applications in mid-volume segments that require the automation of tasks such as bar-code reading or product identification. The LeanXcam is suited for use with cost-sensitive products manufactured in volumes of a few hundred to a few thousand per year, an area not currently being served, Baettig said.
The camera’s hardware design has been simplified and the cost per system greatly reduced, to under 200 euros, said Baettig. Hardware includes a 60-fps, WVGA (wide VGA) CMOS image sensor, a 500-MHz DSP (digital signal processor), and Ethernet I/O. The camera can be purchased as a system, or its schematics, layout, and bill of materials list are available free of charge.
The LeanXcam runs the open-source μClinux operating system. In addition, a software framework and integrated development environment, designed by Supercomputing Systems, are distributed under the LGPL v2 open-source license.—Ann R. Thryft
Vision market holding steady
By Ann R. Thryft, Contributing Technical Editor
Despite the current global financial crisis, the European and German machine-vision industries continued to grow during 2008, although revenue will be flat next year, according to research presented by the VDMA (German Engineering Federation) at Vision 2008 (November 4–6, Stuttgart, Germany). The number of attendees and exhibitors and the percentage of exhibitors coming from foreign countries to the event continues to grow, said Thomas Walter, industry and technology area manager for Messe Stuttgart, the producer of the show.
Dr. Horst Heinol-Heikkinen, managing director of ASENTICS and member of the VDMA machine-vision executive board, said at a November 4 press conference that the German machine-vision industry remained on target with expectations for its performance in 2008. The companies that VDMA surveyed expected increases in 2008 revenue totaling 6%, bringing overall machine-vision revenue to 1.2 billion euros. But in 2009, upheavals in international financial markets will likely contribute to a flattening of revenue growth. This will halt the trend established over the past 10 years, which saw the industry more than triple its revenue.
Heinol-Heikkinen also noted that during 2007 more than 40% of machine-vision revenue in Germany came from OEM customers, and the same proportion came from end users. In Europe, the figures for those sectors were 38% and 43%, respectively. Although orders from OEMs had decreased significantly since May, VDMA expected final revenues from that sector to show an increase of 5% in 2008.
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Along with the VDMA data specific to Germany, Heinol-Heikkinen presented some Europe-wide market research data from the EMVA (European Machine Vision Association). He said that automotive and electrical/electronics applications have continued to provide the bulk of manufacturing-related machine-vision revenue in both Germany and Europe. In 2007, automotive applications accounted for 29% of total revenue in Germany and 26% in Europe, while electrical/electronics applications represented around 13% in Germany and 12% in Europe.
Heinol-Heikkinen reported that a forecast from the Institute for Economic Research predicts production declines in Germany during 2009 of 1.5% in the automotive sector and 3% in the electronics and communication technology sector. In 2008, automotive production declined by about 1.5%. At the same time, however, production in the electronics and communication segment expanded by 10%.
Despite the overall market stagnation expected in 2009, Heinol-Heikkinen said that a number of new machine-vision application sectors have high market potential. These include agriculture, transportation, recycling, sports, medicine, criminology, and security technology, and he said their emergence is a response to larger “social mega-themes” such as environmental protection, resource conservation, the need for security, and demographic change.
In addition, he cited the ongoing need to reduce costs and optimize processes, which often arises in economically difficult times and has historically been achieved with automation, including machine-vision technologies. Customers’ desires to increase quality and safety, as well as develop innovative and miniaturized products, can act as an additional driver for introducing machine-vision technologies into production processes, he said.
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